be light

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (22)Isaiah 60:1-5

1 Stand up, be light; because your light has come, and the glory of Yahveh has shown upon you. 2 Watch, because darkness will cover the land, and thick darkness the peoples; but Yahveh will shine upon you, and his glory will appear upon you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4 Lift up your eyes and look around; they are all gathering together, they come to you; your sons will come from a distance, and your daughters will be carried on their nurses’ arms. 5 Then you will see and be radiant; your heart will open wide and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea will fall upon you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

be light

Centuries before Jesus challenged his followers to be light in their dark world, that same challenge came from the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah’s time, and in Jesus’ time, and in our time, we are tempted to excuse ourselves from this challenge because there is so much evil and darkness, what difference can we make. But the challenge is from God, and because he gives it, we know it is possible. No matter how dark the time, no matter how deep sin is in society, no matter how much crime is embedded in the culture, God’s challenge to his people is: “be light.”

The promise that comes with the challenge is that if we dare to be the light, the nations who walk in darkness will come to us. No matter how wrong our society becomes, there will always be a hunger and thirst for the right. We must be the right for our society to see.

LORD, show us how to shine. Teach us how to display your righteousness in our dark time.

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permanent spirit, permanent words

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (21)Isaiah 59:17-21

17 He put on righteousness like a coat of armour, and Yeshua as a helmet on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle. 18 According to their deeds, so will he repay; wrath to his foes, recompense to his enemies; to the distant lands he will pay recompense. 19 So those in the west shall fear the name of Yahveh, and those in the east, his glory; for he will come like a pent-up stream that the wind of Yahveh drives on. 20 And he will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says Yahveh. 21 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahveh: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says Yahveh, from now on and permanently.

permanent spirit, permanent words

Isaiah returns to his role as foretelling prophet here. He says that Yahveh will put on his fighting clothes, and do warfare against his enemies. His particular means of warfare against his enemies is revealed here. Yahveh’s salvation, his Yeshua is going to come to Zion as Redeemer, but not to the whole political entity – only to those who turn from their transgression. His new covenant he makes with the repentant Israel is that his spirit (or Spirit) and his words will be coming from their mouths and the mouths of their children and grandchildren permanently, from then on.

Centuries later, a young man named Yeshua walked around the land of Isaiah and taught God’s words, coming from God’s Spirit. From then on, that covenant, and those witnesses to it, have been a permanent mountain on the world’s spiritual landscape.

LORD, thank you for your Son, Yeshua, who gave us your Spirit and your words of truth, permanently.

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beltless

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (20)Isaiah 59:12-16

12 For our crimes before you are many, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions indeed are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgressing, and denying Yahveh, and turning ourselves away from following our God, talking extortion and revolt, conceiving lying words and proclaiming them from the heart. 14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the open plaza, and honesty cannot enter. 15 Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil is plundered. Yahveh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm brought him victory, and his righteousness backed him up.

beltless

Paul’s “armour of God” in Ephesians 6 reflects the wording of this chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah pictured the whole nation without this essential item. When I was in the army, I learned how important it was to have a harness around me, giving me a place to hang all the essential items I might need in combat. This L.B.E. (load bearing equipment) was necessary for my survival, because everything else literally was hanging on it. So it is with truth as a believer.

Isaiah was pointing to the fact that his people had become as corrupt as the nations around him. When God looked for honesty and truth, he found no one, so he had to be honest with himself. His own righteousness had to back him up. May this not be the case today. May the Lord’s church wrap itself with integrity and honesty. It is essential for spiritual warfare, and life as a Christian.

LORD, forgive us for our dishonest living in the past. Make us a people belted with integrity.

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twisted roads

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (19)Isaiah 59:7-11

7 Their feet scurry to evil, and they rush to spill innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their highways. 8 They do not know any peace road, and there is no justice in their paths. Their roads they have twisted; no one who walks on them knows peace. 9 Therefore justice is far from us, and fairness does not reach us; we wait for light, and instead there is darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in shadow. 10 We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon just like in the twilight, in the graveyards as though we were dead. 11 We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully. We wait for justice, but there is none; for Yeshua, but he is far from us.

twisted roads

Did you notice the shift in pronouns? After mentioning the twisted roads in verse 8, everything else relates to those who walk those twisted roads. These are the not-so-evil masses, who simply follow the leaders onto those twisted roads. Even if the masses seek for justice and the coming Messiah, they cannot find him. The roads they have been led to are too twisted for arriving at one’s intended destination.

We have to stop thinking inside the box, and seek new roads. Otherwise, our entire generation will be lost to Christ and his coming sky kingdom. We need to get back to the word, because that is the road the LORD wants us to take.

LORD, we seek your straight road. Guide us to it.

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our real problem

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (18)Isaiah 59:1-6

Watch, Yahveh’s hand is not too short from delivering,[1] nor his ear too dull from hearing. 2 Instead, your iniquities have caused a division between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, keeping him from listening. 3 Because your palms[2] are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters malice. 4 No one brings suit fairly, no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak worthless words, conceiving mischief and giving birth to iniquity. 5 They hatch vipers’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web; whoever eats their eggs dies, and the crushed egg hatches out a viper. 6 Their webs cannot serve as clothing; they cannot cover[3] themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are hidden in their palms.

 

our real problem

 

Our generation thinks that God is broken, or that he has somehow vanished.  God has not changed, but we have.  Our sins have defiled us so much that God can no longer stand to even listen to us.  A division has occurred, creating, in effect, a new species of animal, who thinks he can cover up his own evil and violence.  We still need God’s grace, and we have to come to him in repentance, or else our sins will keep him away.

LORD, forgive us for thinking you have changed.  Open our eyes to see how much we have changed.  Restore us to you.

 

[1] 17:10; 19:20; 25:9; 30:15; 33:22; 35:4; 37:20, 35; 38:20; 43:3, 11f; 45:8, 15, 17, 20ff; 46:7; 47:13, 15; 49:25f; 51:5; 59:1, 16; 60:16; 61:10; 62:11; 63:1, 5, 8f; 64:4.

[2] 1:6, 15; 28:4; 33:15; 36:6; 37:25; 38:6; 49:16; 55:12; 59:3, 6; 60:14; 62:3.

[3] 6:2; 11:9; 26:21; 29:10; 37:1f; 51:16; 58:7; 59:6; 60:2, 6.

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the appropriate fast

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (17)Isaiah 58:7-14

7 Is the appropriate fast not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the poorly dressed, to cover them, and not to isolate yourself from your own family? 8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; your vindicator will go before you, the glory of Yahveh will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and Yahveh will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry soul and satisfy the needs of the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 Yahveh will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will raise up the foundations of many generations; you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a pleasure and the holy day of Yahveh honourable; if you honour it, not taking your own roads, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you will take pleasure in Yahveh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the inheritance of your father Jacob, because the mouth of Yahveh has spoken.

the appropriate fast

The appropriate fast does not begin in the temple. It begins when God’s people start taking their obligations to each other seriously. If we just start there, and really live out our love for God by taking care of the needy all around us, being good neighbours to them – we will see God’s love at work. Then, when we do enter the holy place for time alone with God, we will find him there too. We will find that he has taken care of all our needs. We will appreciate those times alone with God all the more once we get our own agendas under control, and focus on him.

LORD, give us the wisdom to start our worship by serving others throughout the week. Then, may we celebrate your presence in worship without hypocrisy.

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whiners worship

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (16)Isaiah 58:1-6

Shout out a throaty shout, do not keep it back! Lift up your voice like you would a ram’s horn! Announce to my people their wrongdoing, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet day after day they seek me and take pleasure in knowing my roads, as if they were a nation that did a righteous thing and did not abandon the judgment of their God; they ask me for righteous judgments, they take pleasure in approaching God, 3 asking “Why are we fasting, but you are not looking? Why are we humbling our souls, but you are not acknowledging it?” Watch, you are finding your own pleasure on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. 4 Watch, you fast only to argue and to brawl and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard up high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in rags and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day favoured by to Yahveh? 6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to untie the bonds of injustice, to unfasten the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to tear apart every yoke?

whiners worship

God was watching, and he did not like what he saw. He saw his people declaring regular fasts, and putting on a show like they wanted to be in God’s presence, then using that time as an excuse to whine about God. In the meantime, these same people were putting heavy burdens on their own workers, and even using their fast times to justify the mistreatment of others. The irony is that the people were whining in their worship that God was not looking. The problem was not that God was not looking. The problem was that God was looking. He saw their hypocrisy. He saw them using worship to enhance their own feelings of superiority and self-righteousness. That kind of whiners worship does get God’s attention, but it does not please him.

LORD, forgive us for making worship about us. When we come into your presence, keep us focused on you. Deliver us from the bondage to ourselves. We choose to take our agenda off the table, and look up to you.

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grace that relents

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (15)Isaiah 57:16-21

16 Because I will not permanently contest with them, nor will I be furious forever; because if I did that, a spirit would wear out in my presence, even the breaths that I have given. 17 Because of their unfair covetousness I was furious; I struck them, I hid and was furious; but they kept turning back to their own roads. 18 I have seen their roads, but I will repair them; I will guide them and restore them with comfort, creating fruit for their mourners’ lips. 19 Peace, peace, to the distant and the nearby, says Yahveh; and I will repair them. 20 But the wicked ones are like the churning sea because it cannot keep still; its waters toss up grime and mud. 21 There will be no peace, says my God, for the wicked ones.

grace that relents

All of human destiny rests on the fact that our wonderful God cannot keep condemning us. His grace relents because he knows how much we can take. He knows the breath within us would leave us and we would die if we were permanently presented with our own sins and shortcomings. That is why there is hope for us. Our God is in the repair business. He sees the wrong roads we have taken, and he speaks peace and comfort with us, through Christ, as he gently guides us back to the right roads. This is true of those who are nearby, as well as those who are distant.

But God’s grace also has a line which it cannot cross. The wicked ones who refuse to repent will not experience that peace, and will not see the repairs needed for their restoration. Some teach that God will ultimately restore everyone to himself. I wish it were true, but it is not. We can take comfort that our God is a God of grace, who is willing to overlook our sins, and lead us back on the right paths. But we must never forget that unless we take those paths, we will face his permanent judgment.

LORD, we accept your conditions of peace. Help us to follow you back to the safe road.

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he lives to revive

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (14)Isaiah 57:12-15

12 I myself admit your righteousness and your works, but they are not to your advantage. 13 When you are crying out, let your collection deliver you, and a wind will carry all of them away; a breath will blow it away. But he who takes refuge in me will take possession of the land, and he will inherit my mountain of holiness. 14 And he will say, “Build it, build it! Clear a road! Remove that obstacle from the road for my people!” 15 Because this is what the high and lofty one who resides forever, and whose name is holy says: “I reside in a high and holy place, but also with the crushed and humble of spirit; I live to revive a humble spirit, and to revive a crushed heart.

he lives to revive

The centuries and millennia pass away as we read these words. The prophet Isaiah’s words from God are no different from the New Testament prophets and apostles. They all speak of a God who is so holy that even the righteous acts of his people do not move him. But he is moved by one thing in every generation. A humble spirit who seeks him. A heart crushed by her own sins, and desperate to build a road back to God. The good news from Isaiah is that reviving the repentant is what our great God lives for. Seek him today. Do not try to rest on your own acts of righteousness. They mean nothing.

LORD, we seek you. Show yourself to us in your word and your Son. Revive us!

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hypocritical hanky-panky

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (13)Isaiah 57:7-11

7 You have set your sex bed upon a tall mountain; you also went up there to slaughter sacrifice. 8 And behind the door and the doorpost you have placed your erotic image; because you have divorced yourself from me, and you climb up; you make your bed wide, and you have covenanted for yourself with them, you have loved their sex bed; you have watched their naked form. 9 And you climbed down to “the king”[1] with the oil, and you poured out lots of perfume, and you sent out your messengers to entice them from a distance and you climbed down to Sheol itself. 10 You struggled because your road was so long, but you did not say, I give up!’ You gained new life by thinking about the sex you had, so you do not grow weak. 11 And who did you fear and dread, that you lied and did not remember me? Did you not think about it in your heart? Was it not that I have been silent, even from long ago, and so you do not fear me?

hypocritical hanky-panky

Isaiah’s words reflect God as a husband whose wife has not just been unfaithful. She has opened up her sex bed to anyone. She sends out messengers enticing people to come and have sex with her. She climbed down to Molech, the king. Then, she kept climbing until she reached the depths of the grave (Sheol) itself. All the while this adulteress is doing this, she keeps up the appearance that she is still faithful. She goes out to slaughter a sacrifice to Yahveh, and on the way back she has sex with an idol. You would think that she would get tired of this hypocritical road she is travelling, but, no. Nothing is going to stop her, because Yahveh has been silent. So, she keeps at it.

This is how our Lord feels when we prostitute ourselves. He knows the depths of our betrayal. It grieves him to see our disloyalty. He waits in silence to see if we will ever recognize how much our unfaithfulness hurts him. He still wants us to come back.

LORD, we are running back to you. Help us to put an end to our race away from you.

[1] למלך — a reference to Molech.

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